Imperia AG implements imperia 9

When Robert Ragge founded HRS in 1972, nobody would have thought that the "Hotel Directory“ which has been published since 1986 would no longer exist in printed form, but would instead be solely available in electronic form via the internet. Thanks to the success of the internet, HRS expanded to become Europe's leading hotel portal. Some of the portal content had been created using a content management system that, after many years of good service, had reached its limits.

That is why the company replaced the previous content management system and now uses imperia 9 worldwide. A decisive factor in initiating the project was the fact the previous system had reached its limits in terms of scalability. Enhancing the system to incorporate new content structures and the editorial processes associated with it was a complex process. The old system also required a lot of upkeep and maintenance.

After a comprehensive selection process, HRS, the worldwide hotel portal for private and business travellers, opted for Imperia AG's system. imperia CMS was implemented and the system led to a marked simplification of the processes at HRS. imperia 9 now func-tions as a worldwide content management system, which creates content in 32 languages.

Successfull teamwork following the replacement of the old system

The entire project took about a year to complete, and started with an intensive evaluation of the status quo at HRS. "It became clear from our analysis that our existing content management system would no longer be able to meet our future requirements, so we decided to work together with Imperia AG", explained Sandra Steiner, Head of Content Management at HRS. Media management and the future viability of the system were the critical factors leading to the decision to opt for a new system. "Some of the backend features of imperia CMS have simplified our work leading to process optimisation“, added Steiner.

Complex migration

With the help of Imperia AG it was possible to migrate 98 percent of the data automatically. During the course of this data transfer a number of tailored solutions were specifically developed for the task, as well as interfaces to existing applications. Imperia developed these modules to uphold the desired functionality. However, some of the data still had to be manually updated. This included the subject-related hotel search function.

Process optimisation through workflow management

The new content management system provides Europe's leading hotel portal with a range of features that streamline in-house operating procedures and help to reduce process costs. Besides workflow management, these include the drag & drop function of the content modules and the real time preview mode in the HRS frontend layout.